Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128166
Happenings In Motorcycling The Ferrari Bond One More First Pitch Ducati Corse managing director Claudio Domenicali handed over the keys to a brand-new Ducat! Monster 54 to Ferrari Racing general director Jean Todt, the man you see on the podium race after race with Formula One World Champion Michael Schumacher. Todt is a motorcyclist and a fan, and all he had to do to get his Mooster was express a desire to try one. Must be nice. It's worth noting that Ferrari Formula One sporting director Stefano Domenicali was also present at the ceremony. Stefano, however, is not related to Claudio. Freestyle motocrosser Kenny Bartram, a star rider of the IFMA Freestyle Motocross Series, had the opportunity to throw out the first pitch prior to the Milwaukee Brewers/Houston Astros game recently at Miller Park in Milwaukee. Although the home team lost. Bartram was a winner, topping Dustin Miller and Jake Windham the following day in the IFMA event at the Milwaukee Mile. Bartram is the current IFMA points leader with a commanding 18 wins during the winter series, and is the points leader in the Vans Triple Crown of Freestyle Motocross as well. By ALAN CATHCART • • Rocks, or Ready to Rock? The list of likely contenders who will be aboard when World Superbike goes to a full lOOOcc irrespective of the number of cylinders in 2004 is starting to look pretty impressive. An four Japanese manufacturers will have new 2004 models for the class, all of them of course currently under development and all of them fuel-Injected inIlne fours. This means that rumors of Honda's one-titre V4 sportbike are misplaced - according to impeccable 5OW"CeS, the new bike will definitely be a full-size CBRlOOORR FireBlade, with which 'Blade boss Tado Saba wiD sign off his career as the Inventor of the modem sportbike, and the bike is already being tested. Suzuki will have an updated version of the GSX-Rl000 - the bike which represents the benchmark the others have to beat - Yamaha has a ram-air Rl IB'lder development which will featwe a lighter crank design as well as detail technology transferred from the M1 GP racer (like the Rl, definitely a 20-valve motor), and Kawasaki wiD debut the ZX-IOR it's had under wraps for the Pllst two years. suitably updated in light of experience gained from the company's 990cc ZX-RR MotoGP rllCer. Given that racetrack success wiD be a crucial factor in the commercial impact of these four new models. especially in a martret sector of such c:ritic:al sala Jmportanc:e on a worldwide basis, it's Inconceivable that any of these factories wiD not suPPQft the new World Superbike class very closely - especla1Iy as each of them wiD have To cast ".---btlp:1 I yOUI vote, ww~gde written off the start-up costs of their MotoGP contender by then, so wUl have more R&D budget, not to mention the sales promotion element. to devote to Superbike rating. But in addition to these four companies, SBK 2004 looks set to also have Ducatl on the starting grid with the forthcoming new 999R, which Neil Hodgson and another (Anthony Gobert? Ben Bostrom?) will be debuting In 2003 before it comes on line as a customer bike in '04; Aprilla, with the heavily revamped RSVI000 which it's understood the Venetian company will be launching in the 2003 MIlan Show, after returning to a two-rider team next season (perhaps with Eric Bostrom joining Nori-chan on the 6O-degree V-twins); the Foggy Petronas FPI triple In the tun- 1OCOee guise which Carl Fogarty has gone on record as saying the company will be developing for the 2004 season; and the Honda SP2-englned Mondiai Piega Vtwin which will definitely debut next season with Pirelli tires - and which provides Honda with a typically astute means of covering all the angles, so that if the new SBK restrictor rules favor twins rather than fours, they're covered either way. That makes a total of eight different manufacturers in World Superbike for 2004 - all without taking into account companies like Benelli (with the existing Tomado, though only after some serious R&D on the race version), Triumph (John Bloor is on record as saying he plans to go Superbike racing, so expect a full-loo0cc Daytona triple for 2004 or soon after), MV Agusta (with the Tamburini-designed l0C0ec F5 which is expected to be launched at Intermot in September, the engine of which Is giving a good account of itself In prototype form in endurance rating). and Gilera (which is known to have a lOOOcc V-twin Superbike racer under development). Some lineup in prospect. even if only some of those additional entries listed above join in as well. If the world remains on an even keel, both economically and politically, it seems we may be in for a golden age in four-stroke road racing over the next decade, with two distinct world series - MotoGP, and World Superbike/Supersport - each of which has the potential to offer a breadth of technology and a variety of marques not seen since the last golden era of road rIICIng In the mid- 19505. Ifs no coincidence that many of the names who made racing great back then have been revived and are fueling Its present splendor. lag an to ews.c m. III a til a ds ma Ie a!'ttI!!fttIitM-lriilm-:ei1lli jjf;J.fiil~.wtre:UCieiiiiliiJsrruiJ-- A. [i a a d 6 AUGUST 7. 2002· cue I • n e _ s